Two suspected spies were arrested late Saturday evening on suspicion of stealing secret information about Taiwan's Mirage 2000-5 fighter aircraft and selling it to China, the military announced yesterday.
Special agents from the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau (MJIB) and military police transferred the two alleged spies to the Taiwan High Court Prosecutors' Office in Kaohsiung, while another suspect is in military custody for questioning.
The bureau issued a press release late on Saturday regarding its cooperation with the Ministry of National Defense's (MND) Political Warfare Department in the spy case, and announced the arrest of two primary suspects: former air force sergeant first class Chen Jiunn-hung (
As of press time yesterday, the interrogations of Chen and Ho were continuing, and prosecutors have not yet filed any requests to detain them or allow them to be released on bail.
According to the bureau, the men's espionage activities began in September 2002, when Chen and Ho met each other through a Yahoo-Kimo online chat room. Ho traveled to Taiwan and met Chen in person, and then convinced him to betray his country by using his privileged access to air force information to steal state secrets.
On July 5 last year, Chen introduced his high school classmate Chiu Chen-hung (
Chiu decided to report his espionage activities to his superior officer a few days later, because he never received any money from Ho or Chen, and therefore felt that they had deceived him.
Chiu was immediately detained by military investigators. In the meantime, military investigators also began cooperating with Taiwan High Court prosecutors, as well as MJIB agents, in the search for Ho and Chen.
What surprised law enforcement officers was that Chen also reported his espionage activities in September last year. Investigators said it was not immediately clear what had prompted Chen to turn himself in.
"The MJIB began to follow, monitor and investigate Chen ever since he reported to us last year. However, we decided to wait for the best chance to arrest Ho since Ho travels very often between Guangzhou and Taipei and it was difficult to arrest him at the scene with sufficient evidence," a high-ranking MJIB official, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
In the meantime, the MND said that the spy case had not seriously affected Taiwan's defense capabilities, because what Chiu had stolen was only "skin-deep" information, which would not jeopardize either the aircraft themselves or the air force's deployments.
"What Chiu stole from his base was classified. However, it was merely some maintenance records for Mirage jet fighters, so it will not hurt us too much," a spokesman at the MND said.
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